"... your own salvation" (τὴν ἑαυτῶν σωτηρίαν)

"... work out your own salvation with *fear and trembling*" (Phi 2:12b).

With "fear and trembling"? Paul had already written in this same letter, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Phi 1:6). So, was he contradicting himself? Not likely.

"... your own salvation" (τὴν ἑαυτῶν σωτηρίαν) has a combination of a plural pronoun τὴν ἑαυτῶν [lit "the yours" pl.] and a singular referent ["salvation" ... not "salvations"]. The effect is as it's usually translated -- "your own salvation."

Phi 1:6 ("he who began a good work in you"), although it has ramifications for individuals, is all about the group. "[Y]ou" (ὑμῖν) there is plural. Thus God, Who has begun a good work among the Philippian disciples will continue to complete it until Christ returns. The "work" is singular, but the "you" is plural, i.e. the group.

There has been a lot of emphasis in recent centuries placed on "assurance of salvation," even taken to the extreme among some Christian groups of "eternal security." However, Paul tells the Philippians, and us, to "... work out your [each of our] own salvation with *fear and trembling*" (Phi 2:12b). An individual path, plus some degree of trepidation.

If it's all a "done deal," so to speak, then Paul's imperative to "work out" (κατεργάζεσθε -- bring to completion by labor and / or effort) our own salvation seems somewhat odd. If there is some level of open-endedness about each of our paths and destinations, then the Apostle's instructions make more sense ... especially the part about "fear and trembling." There is a neurotic fear that cripples Christian disciples from bearing fruit. I seriously doubt that's what Paul had in mind. More likely, the Apostle sought to stir up fruit-bearing among the Philippian Christians -- and, by proxy, us -- through recalling this open-endedness related to obedience (Phi 2:12a). There is a fear that motivates. I'm pretty certain that's the kind of "fear and trembling" Paul had in mind.

It is simplistic and wrong to equate "fear" with "lack of faith." There are good kinds of fear and there are bad kinds. Likewise, it is simplistic and wrong to emphasize "assurance of salvation" to the point where it virtually eclipses biblical emphases on the individual person "work[ing] out [his / her] own salvation with *fear and trembling.*" The open-endedness of the journey. True enough, we can say with Paul, "not having a righteousness of my own ... but [a righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ" (Phi 3:9). But such an assurance should be balanced out by the Apostle's finished thought: "that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead" (Phi 3:10). He kept the result open-ended. So should we.

Each of us is tasked as individual disciples of Jesus Christ to "work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling," remaining confident that in this "work," and even in this "fear and trembling," "it is God who works in [us], both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phi 2:13).

-Michael Millier